Dinos' Thames wins 2015 MVP honor

NC Dinos first baseman Eric Thames kisses the trophy after winning the Korea Baseball Organization’s (KBO) MVP award at the K Hotel Seoul in Yangjae, Tuesday. / Yonhap

Samsung Lions Koo Ja-wook poses with trophy after claiming the Rookie of the Year award. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

NC Dinos’ first baseman Eric Thames, 29, was named this year’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Tuesday, becoming the third foreign player to win the honor.

Thames, who led the league in batting average (.381), runs (130), on-base percentage (.497) and slugging average (.790) this year, earned 50 votes from the 100 KBO press corps members to clinch his first ever MVP award. It was six votes more than his competitor Nexen Heroes first baseman Park Byung-ho.

“Thank you to the media and thank you to the fans. I appreciate this and I will see you next season,” Thames said at an award ceremony at the Hotel K Seoul in Yangjae.

In his second season in the KBO, the American baseballer has displayed tremendous performances becoming the first ever KBO player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season -- hitting 47 homers and stealing 40 bases.

In winning the award, Thames follows Tyrone Woods of the OB Bears in 1998 and Danie Rios of the Doosan Bears in 2007.

Samsung Lions’ Koo Ja-wook, 23, was voted Rookie of the Year, receiving 60 votes from the 100 KBO press corps members. The rookie first baseman has recorded a batting average of .349, on-base percentage of .417 and a slugging average of .534.

Koo was followed by the Nexen Heroes shortstop Kim Ha-seong with 34 votes and the KT Wiz relief pitcher Cho Moo-geun with six votes.

“It is an honor to receive such an award. Though I am very nervous now, I would like to thank my manager for allowing me to play in the game though I lack the ability. As I have bigger goal than receiving the rookie award, I will keep working hard to achieve that dream,” Koo said.

To wrap up the 2015 season, this year has been an entirely new set as the country’s top baseball league welcomed the KT Wiz as the 10th club.

Thanks to the Suwon-based club, the KBO League has reached milestone of 7.6 million spectators for the first time in the league’s 34-year-long history.

The KBO’s bid to attract more than 8 million spectators a season is expected to be achieved next season with the clubs using newly built stadiums. The Heroes will move their home park from the Mokdong Baseball Stadium to the Gocheok Sky Dome, the country’s first ever domed baseball stadium in western Seoul. The Lions also will play in the newly built stadium dubbed Daegu Samsung Lions Park from next season, leaving their previous 67-year-old Daegu Baseball Stadium.

But the league was recently hit by a series of scandals.

Last month, three Lions’ pitchers -- Yun Sung-hwan, Lim Chang-yong and An Ji-man -- were embroiled in illegal overseas gambling scandals. Those three players were consequently excluded from their team’s squad competing at the Korean Series, the league’s final round of postseason playoffs, and their absence left a big hole in the team, allowing the Doosan Bears to win the title.

The Wiz catcher Jang Sung-woo was also harshly criticized last month for his ex-girlfriend’s social network articles saying that he slandered baseball players and coaches and made sexually disparaging comments about females in the baseball business including a Lotte Giants cheerleader. Due to the growing controversy, he was punished hard by the KBO, being banned for 50 games next year and fined 20 million won ($17,340). The KBO also ordered him to do 240 hours of community service.